Donald J. Cram, a Nobel Prize-winning organic chemist, came to UCLA in August of 1947 where he taught and conducted research
for over four decades. The field of host-guest complexation chemistry was in large part developed by Cram and his research
group at UCLA. Through this work, the interactions between enzymes and their substrates in a living cell were mimicked using
synthetic molecules. The collection includes correspondence, lectures, publications, UCLA theses and dissertations, scrapbooks,
patent notebooks, honorary medals, molecular models, photographs, his signature bow-tie and Nobel Prize.

Background

Donald J. Cram was born April 22, 1919 in Chester, Vermont. During the summers of 1938 to 1941, Cram worked for the National
Biscuit Company in New York City, at first as a salesman and then as a laboratory technician involved in the analysis of cheeses
for moisture and fat content. According to Cram's Nobel autobiography, "Chemical research became my god, and the conducting
of it, my act of prayer, from 1938 to the present." This spiritual journey and Cram's academic mastery of Organic Chemistry
began with a B.S. from Rollins College in 1941, an M.S. from the University of Nebraska in 1942 and finally a Ph.D. from Harvard
in 1947. Cram came to UCLA in August of 1947 where he taught and conducted research for over four decades. A stereochemist
in molecular organic chemistry, in 1952 Cram developed the rule of asymmetric induction, discovered phenonium ions, and in
large part developed the field of host-guest complexation chemistry with his research group at UCLA. Through this work the
interactions between enzymes and their substrates in a living cell were mimicked using synthetic molecules. The creation of
this field of host-guest chemistry led to his Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987 and the President's National Medal of Science
in 1993. Donald J. Cram died in Palm Desert, California on June 17, 2001.

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Availability

Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.